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Online Help > AlpineQuest 1.4

The Location Tracker

The AlpineQuest GPS Location Tracker is a background service that records all your locations and creates a track of your hikes.

At any moment, you can get advanced statistics (distances, speeds, elevations) and graphics.

Tracks can be saved within AlpineQuest or exported as GPX and KML files, that can be displayed in various softwares such as Google Earth.

tracker_window.jpg

To start the Location Tracker, click on the toggle to use the current settings. If you want to change some settings, click on the button to display the Location Tracker settings dialog.

The Location Tracker is composed of the following items:

  • The current track state give you few details on the current track;
  • The current track profile gives you a preview of what you have done yet. Click on it to display all the statistics.

When the Location Tracker is paused with recorded data, the following items are also available:

  • The “Export” button allows you to save or export the current track;
  • The “Clear” button allows you to clear the recorded data.

The Settings dialog

tracker_settings_1.jpg

The Location Tracker can be finely configured to provide the exact tracking you need.

Localisation settings

The two first settings are linked to the GPS Localisation settings, if you change one on a side, it will be updated in the other. This behavior is done to keep a synchronization between all locations listening within the application and so reduce the battery usage.

  • The “Location source let you choose from where the locations have to be retrieved. Most people will choose “Outdoor GPS”, but you can change it to “External locations” if you have an external bluetooth GPS you want to use;
  • The “Update frequency allows you to choose how fast the locations have to be recorded. For runners, a precise tracking is recommend, whereas hikers should prefer a medium one, as a fast tracking will use more battery.

Some location sources can be disabled from the device settings. Click on the “Location sources button to access these settings easily.

Locations filtering

Once the source and frequency of the locations have been chosen, you can optionally configure filters. These filters allow you to reduce the amount of the track locations (and so the battery usage) and to increase the tracking accuracy. You may need to click on “More settings to display them all.

The “distance filter allows you to ignore locations if you haven't moved a minimum distance, whereas the “accuracy filter allows you to ignore inaccurate locations.

tracker_settings_2.jpg

Barometric elevations

If your device has a built-in pressure sensor, you can activate the “barometric elevations feature which will compute elevation values based on the air pressure, in addition to the common GPS elevations. These barometric altitudes are much more accurate and reactive, and can be computed precisely even if the GPS signal is very poor.

The barometric data is auto-calibrated by AlpineQuest using GPS locations.

Lost of signal warn

If the GPS signal is getting poor or lost, AlpineQuest will replace the green GPS Location Tracker's icon by a red one.

Using the “lost of signal warn, you can choose to be also warned with a sound and a device vibration.